On low speed, subsonic aircraft, weapons whether carried on the wing, underside of the the fuselage or within a weapon bay, can be gravity dropped with acceptable separation characteristics. The weapons are released from the bomb rack and armed by mechanical arming wires after release. The very early aircraft used mechnical means to accomplish release while more modern aircraft use solenoid or power operated hooks. But, with high speed jet aircraft which fly at high subsonic and supersonic speeds, weapon release, particularly from an internal weapon bay by gravity release is dangerous and can result in unpredicatable trajectories. This occurs because at the high lever of air turbulence about the aircraft at supersonic speeds shock waves are formed which exacerbates the problem. Thus, the weapon must be physically ejected.
In one approach, the weapon is forcibly ejected from a fixed bomb rack in the weapon bay. A typical bomb rack comprises hooks for suspending and releasing the weapon, sway braces for stablizing and hydraulic or explosively actuated ejectors. In operation, the release cycle takes but milliseconds from the time the weapon is released to the forcible ejection. The ejectors can be programmed so as to vary the force at which the missile is ejected and also the pitch angle (different force levels in each ejector). Typical ejectors are diclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,968 "Controlled Output Force Actuator" by Stock et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,639, "Ejector Device for Storage" by Stock. By forcibly ejecting the weapon the exposure to turbulent air flow is kept to a minimum and the weapon will have considerable momentum so as to pass quickly through the turbulent air. This provides a more positive means of safe separation. The disadvantage is that during ejection the weapon immediately loses contact with the sway braces and stablizing is solely dependent upon the force applied to the weapon.
Another approach is to mount the rack on a parallel link assembly and lower the weapon out of the weapon bay prior to ejection. This provides stabilization and does position the weapon away from the aircraft. But, when launching missiles it is desirable to provide not only safe separation from the aircraft, but a forward velocity thereto. While the extension of the parallel links and solenoid operated hook release could be coordinated so that such a directional thrust is obtained, there would always be the possibility that the weapon would be lowered but the hooks failing to release. The resulting loads on the links and supporting structure would be quite large. Therefore, it would be desirable to have automatic mechanical release.
Thus, it is a primary object of the subject invention to provide a dispensing system for ejecting a weapon from an aircraft maintaining a postitive positional control throughout the ejection stroke.
It is another primary object of the subject invention to provide a weapon dispensing system for an aircraft for ejecting a weapon from an aircraft wherein the weapon is stored internally and positive positional control is maintained until the weapon has cleared the interior of the aircraft.
A further object of the subject invention is to provide a weapon dispensing system for an aircraft wherein the weapon is ejected at a downward and forward direction.
A still further object of the subject invention is to provide a weapon dispensing system for an aircraft wherein the pitch angle of the weapon at release can be varied without deterioration of the separation velocity.
Another object of the subject invention is to provide a weapon dispensing system for an aircraft wherein the release of the weapon from the mounting rack in the release position is automatically accomplished by mechanical means.